Since I’ve taken up crochet with a newly-minted verve,  everything for me is about texture and exploring the complexities of yarn. Oodles and oodles of yarn.

{images via nancy flowers, the lane & dustjacket, items by designbird}

I am finding that my explorations in craft and yarn are beginning to inform and inspire what and who I am drawn to in design. That, my friends, is an fun turn of events, for my never-ending design adventures.

I know I haven’t bee posting much lately. Over the last few weeks, I  have found that I needed a bit of a blogging break. I want Design Wonderland to be more than just pretty photos and I have been trying to reconnect with my core creativity. Outside of the office, I felt very much disconnected from what makes me, well me. Coupled with the fact, I have to talk so much about design at work, that when I come home, I don’t feeling like talking about it more. I recently tweeted about a wallpaper conference call and I’ve had another since. These are good problems to have by the way. However, I feel sometimes that I let you, my readers, down, but at the end of the day I am human and I have to treat myself with kindness. And sometimes that means taking break.

I saw this over the weekend and this stirred some good feelings and inspiration:

This is what I’m be working on as I decide on how to evolve my little home on the interwebs.

Hi Everyone! I just wanted to check-in to see how my fellow East Coasters are doing amongst the major winds, damage and flooding that Sandy brought with her last night. My prayers and thoughts are with everyone who has suffered in the wake of the storm.

I continue to count my blessings that aside from the house shaking and windows quaking, the only damage I sustained were to my nerves as I thought about my friends and family from DC to NYC. It helped  to soothe them with music and a crochet project. FYI: I had a small bottle of rum just in case my nerves got really terrible. I’m happy to report that I didn’t have to open it.

Anyhoo, I  just wanted to send lots of love to everyone today.

Because tomorrow is my birthday, I have decided to treat myself to a mini vacay to a semi-remote beachy locale. Some place where I can look like this for hours:

image via pinterest

In fact, As you read this, I am on my way there.  But because we are such great friends, I just wanted to say a quickie Happy Weekend!

See you when I get back!

Happy Friday All! As promised, Tina’s back with a bit of Herbal Essence. Enjoy! 

Confession #72:  I am an herb waster.  Yes, I am.  Don’t you hate it when the recipe calls for sprigs of fresh mints or rosemary, the rest of the bundle that you must purchase from the market (because, admit it.  Not all of us have a green thumb.) gets stuffed in the fridge left to DIE!?

I’ve found many variations of it on the blogosphere on adding herbs to floral arrangements.  What a brilliant idea!  Bringing closer two of my favorite things, food & flowers!

I decided to do all my gathering for this occasion at the Union Square Greenmarket.  I love the farmers markets this time of the year, it’s filled with spring and summer fruits like the strawberries and blueberries and an abundance of fresh vegetables and spring flowers.  And of course lots and lots of herbs.  There were lots of the usual suspects and lots of unfamiliar, interesting and supposedly delicious vegetables.

So I picked up some lavender, mint, rosemary, oregano, basil, lilies, flowering sage, snapdragons, peppergrass, garlic scape, spray roses and the always sunny sunflower.  I decided to go with the country chic route with most of the herbs that I found.  It just seemed so fitting.

Snapdragons paired with oreganos, sprinkle with some peppergrass and garlic scape and volia!  Or you can simply dress it up with combinations of spray roses and the lovely mint in a beautiful silver vase.  It not only makes it more grown up, the mixture of the sweet smell of the spray roses and the ever so fresh mint is delightful!

The small bundle of bouquet consists of basil, rosemary, lavender, sage and spray roses will be living on my bedside table.  Waking up to the aroma of this herbal blend in the morning is what I imagine waking up in Provence to be like.  Ah…  A girl can dream can’t she??

If you missed June’s entry in the Petal Pusher series, click here.

Do you know what today is? A year ago today I packed my bags and headed North from DC to NYC!  Well, for me the best way to celebrate my year anniversary in my newly adopted city, was to check out my Favorite singer Alice Smith who played at City Winery last night. I’m talking desert island favorite singer.

Alice is probably the only reason I would be out past 10PM on a Sunday night, when clearly I have work the next day. But, as always, she was totally worth seeing. With an awesome vocal range, she makes singing seem so effortless and Alice ALWAYS has a good time on stage. With 3 great girlfriends in tow and seats so close that made us feel like we would be called on stage to sing backup any minute, it was an amazing way to ring in another year in NYC.

Alice also mentioned that she has a new EP, entitled “She” coming out soon. I can’t wait because I’ve been bumping “For Lovers, Dreamers and Me” since 2008 like it just came out last week. Plus I need a new NYC soundtrack!

I’m totally in love with this wallpaper.

image via justina blakeney

If I could wallpaper my whole house I would. By the way, you must see the rest of Justina’s project here. It’s gorgeous and totally inspiring!

Hi Friends! I’m finally back to blogging.

However, a few things happened while I was on my unexpected blogging break. In fact, as I type this post, I have officially gone from a PC girl to a Mac convert. Why didn’t I do this sooner?

So,  I finally decided on and bought a new sofa. Macy’s Chloe sofa has totally made my living room a cozy, comfy place to be.

Then I did a little shopping for few fun home accessories.

Oh yeah, I also discovered Instagram and I’m totally loving it! You can find me there as jesswonderland for a few design adventures. Oh yeah, I’ll be back tomorrow with a Design Literati feature.

Hi Everyone!

I just wanted to give you a little update on my blogging status. Sorry for my prolonged absense but I haven’t given up on blogging. Instead of getting my laptops fixed, I decided it was best to buy a new laptop, which will arrive any day now. I will officially be a Mac girl (woohoo) and I hope to be up and running again next week. I have to admit that while it was a really nice and needed blogging break (and a little longer than I anticipated), I miss having our design conversations.

I hope to see you next week !